How Many Trillion$ for the War on ...

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Wednesday March 25, 2009 · 1:03 PM PDT

2009/03/25 · 13:03

POVERTY ??
I don't mean JUST AFDC and TANF.
I don't really know whether to count Medicaid or not;
most of that money winds up going to a corrupt
health insurance system, not to sick poor people.

But I really can't google up a reliable number for this.
Since 1964, JUST HOW many trillions of dollars
have we really spent directly against poverty??
I've seen numbers from as low as $3 trillion to as high as 16!
Most of the people trying to talk about this (on the internet anyway)
are right-wingers trying to make sure you think it's 15.

I have recently been diarying against inequities in public education funding,
but most educators understand that factors completely external to school
can greatly affect how well children do in it, and supporting poor children
OUTside school has had a LOT of bipartisan support via the Harlem Children's Zone,
which Obama pledged to spend $6 billion cloning/exporting to 20 other cities.

Poll

11 votes Show Results

Can we do anything about poverty this year?

11 votes Vote Now!

Can we do anything about poverty this year?

No; that would be "trying to do too much"

0 votes

Yes; Obama will get to $6billion "clone the Zone" soon enough

0 votes

No; votes for change are not votes against "personal responsibility"

0 votes

Yes; and we can do a lot MORE, not less, in THIS climate

7 votes

Let them eat Pie (beats government cheese)

4 votes

Saluting the Illinois Council of Students

ge0rge

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Tuesday March 24, 2009 · 1:14 PM PDT

2009/03/24 · 13:14

In many states, disparities and inequities in public school funding remain broad enough to be unconstitutional (if you're on our side, anyway). Sadly, there were only 4 of us (and 5 of them) on the Supreme Court in 1973 when [1 US 411] San Antonio vs. Rodriguez was decided.
Notwithstanding our ongoing failure in the federal judiciary, it clearly merits attention and congratulations when other branches, or individual states, or even individual students, try to do something about the problem.
Organizing a thousand students across class and district lines to protest inadequate funding between adjacent districts is an achievement that Teaching Tolerance magazine found worthy of coverage in its current issue.

Poll

13 votes Show Results

Should we fight for funding equality in public education?

13 votes Vote Now!

Should we fight for funding equality in public education?

Yes, if only because the constitution requires it

4 votes

Yes, but it's hopeless until after we reclaim the Supreme Court

0 votes

Yes, but we will lose many school board elections along the way

3 votes

No; poor districts are corrupt and will waste the money

1 vote

No; more money is not really what poor districts need

1 vote

No; that paradigm is old; fund charters and innovation instead

3 votes

Pie

1 vote

Why Obama and Duncan have 0 credibility on Education

ge0rge

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Friday March 20, 2009 · 11:57 AM PDT

2009/03/20 · 11:57

Illinois ranks 49th in the percentage of school funding that comes
from the state as opposed to from local property taxes.
This means that funding disparities stemming from wide variations
in the local tax base go UN-compensated for.
"One thing that surprised me was that they (the New Trier kids) were totally oblivious to the entire situation. They really did not know that other schools are not like theirs". These words were spoken by Brandon Saunders, a senior at Chicago's Morgan Park High School, after he skipped the first day of school to visit -- and attempt to register at -- New Trier High School (public), in Winnetka, on the shores of Lake Michigan -- one of the richest zip codes in the country.

Poll

34 votes Show Results

Should we fight for funding equality in public education?

34 votes Vote Now!

Should we fight for funding equality in public education?

Yes; if only because the constitution requires it

6 votes

Yes; but it's hopeless until after we reclaim the Supreme Court

3 votes

Yes; but we may lose a lot of school board elections

2 votes

Yes; even rich districts can now see that this is a fairness issue

6 votes

No; poor districts should raise their OWN funding and do right by their OWN kids

0 votes

No; poor districts are corrupt and will waste the money

2 votes

No; more money is not really what poor districts need

5 votes

No; the public education fails; fund charters and innovation instead

3 votes

Pie

7 votes

Why Anthony Kennedy is a racist hypocrite

ge0rge

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Friday March 13, 2009 · 7:09 AM PDT

2009/03/13 · 07:09

He wrote the majority (5-4) opinion in Bartlett v. Strickland,
re a House district in my state (Gary Bartlett is our director of elections), mostly trashing the ability of sec.2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect black voters from being gerrymandered out of representation.
He basically said that you can crack any black bloc that is smaller than 50% of a district.

"Racial discrimination and racially polarized voting are not ancient history, [but the goal of the Voting Rights Act was to] hasten the waning of racism in American politics [rather than to] entrench racial differences."

His problem is that HIS RULING IN THIS CASE DOES entrench racial
differences -- it is AN OVERT ATTACK on districts where white and
black voters HAVE BEEN OVERCOMING racial differences BECAUSE racism
has been waning.

Precisely as Justice Souter said in dissent, this ruling
FORCES MORE racially polarized voting. It will require [Democratic]
states to pack black voters into MAJORITY-minority districts,

contracting the number of districts where racial minorities are having success in transcending racial divisions.

ge0rge

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Tuesday March 10, 2009 · 4:30 PM PDT

2009/03/10 · 16:30

Maybe it was earlier in the day.
Oh, well, the death of Brown v. Board was hardly diaried as such either,
so maybe I should be less surprised.
But today, in a case from my home state, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that you can't use the Voting Rights Act to justify drawing a district to protect black voters if the black voters so protected constitute less than 50% of the voters of the resulting district. Protection via decent white people DOESN'T COUNT any more -- in fact, it's now explicitly prohibited in any context where state policy cuts against it, which in North Carolina it sort of does: the Republicans recently resurrected a long-disused clause of the state constitution requiring state legislative districts to follow county lines (to consist of whole counties, or be contained in single counties), to the extent "possible".

ge0rge

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Friday February 27, 2009 · 6:56 AM PST

2009/02/27 · 06:56

http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/...

This is a document that was published in 1998,
on the thirtieth anniversar of the original Kerner Commission
report. Despite the fact that this is almost 11 years old now,
I am prompted to ask people to read it as a result of having
gotten HRed to death trying to rebut a diary that unwisely
asked people to "get past" Bobby Jindal's race.
This eventually provoked a south Asian commentator to tell
me that I had no idea how bad he had it: he's been beaten
up and spit on for being Indian, you see.
When I reminded him that, unlike black Americans, he wasn't getting
disproportionately beat up by the police, well,
as I said, I got HRed to death.

The linked report is simply an example of
What Bobby Jindal Has Not Had To Overcome.

ge0rge

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Tuesday February 10, 2009 · 2:54 PM PST

2009/02/10 · 14:54

It was all I could do to restrain myself from titling this diary,
"Bitch, please". Despite the fact that my state just went (barely,
a close-fought victory and sweeter when it's winner-take-all) for Obama,
some ignorant bluedog state senator has just felt the need to introduce
a CRIMINAL libel statute in North Carolina. He now claims that he knew libel was civil, but
given that "Criminal" appears IN THE TITLE of the bill, Ah'm stickin' with ign'ant.

ge0rge

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Wednesday January 07, 2009 · 2:57 PM PST

2009/01/07 · 14:57

Do you ever get the feeling that people who have massively exponentially greater amounts of power and prestige than yourself just don't deserve them?
Do you ever get the feeling that their actions have manifested levels of incompetence that simply seem logically incompatible with their degree of success or achieved societal esteem? No, I'm not talking about the failures of Madoff or LTCM.

The following has happened:

The Congressional Black Caucus voted unanimously Wednesday to support seating Burris. Chairwoman Barbara Lee of California said the 41-member caucus plans to send a letter to Senate Democratic leaders calling for Burris to be seated immediately.

It was entirely predictable that this would happen.
Given that it has happened, why would any commentator here want to allege that "race was not relevant" in the filling of this seat?

Why would FPers in general deliberately subject the appointment (not to mention the appointee) to open ridicule?

ge0rge

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Tuesday December 23, 2008 · 10:50 AM PST

2008/12/23 · 10:50

Obama claims to want to be about constructive engagement,
so the first question is, what kind of engagement with
"these people" IS EVER constructive? Does anything ever change
their minds? I have always been pessimistic about this because
I would certainly like to think that nothing is ever going to
change my mind about my core values.

The strong force on our side for "constructive engagement"
with religious bigotry, a force that existed LONG BEFORE Sen. Barack Obama
became a viable presidential candidate, is Rev. Mel White's "Soulforce". Their mission was basic Gandhian non-violence in the form of bus tours to fundamentalist colleges and churches. So IF Rick Warren wanted to be constructively engaged or
reached-out to, HE HAD a prior opportunity.
Did Rick Warren accept SoulForce's invitation to meet with him?
Well, you could click and see.

ge0rge

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Friday November 21, 2008 · 5:20 PM PST

2008/11/21 · 17:20

This is very old news but somehow I personally didn't come across
it any of the very acrimonous diaries on race and H8 that showed
up here after the unfortunate CNN exit poll.
The California NAACP has joined the plaintiffs seeking to
get the voters' ratification of prop.8 overturned, but
where was the organization at large DURING the battle??

ge0rge

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 17, 2008 · 11:20 AM PST

2008/11/17 · 11:20

My hometown recently completed a new convention center as part of a
downtown revitalization plan. They had to sell $250M in bonds to git'er done.
Municipal bonds are generally considered among the safest
investments on the planet; their yields are low but the interest is tax-free.
Thus, when the debt-insurance scam came along, there were any number of
companies that would agree to be the buyer-of-last-resort for these
bonds, for a fee. The point being that they would probably never have
to actually buy any; they could just pocket the fees. And they did, for
years. AND THEN, the credit crunch came. And the usual buyers weren't
buying these bonds (which makes absolutely no sense since a city or
state, as long as it's not California, is not under the kind of immediate
pressure that was legitimately scaring people out of commercial paper or car loans).
So the buyer actually has to buy. Only now, THEY can't get the lower rates
that historically enabled THEM to buy.

Poll

29 votes Show Results

What would you like to see bailout funds buying?

29 votes Vote Now!

What would you like to see bailout funds buying?

equity in auto industrials

4 votes

equity in financials

1 vote

distressed mortgages

6 votes

actual homes

6 votes

unsold gov't bonds

4 votes

Other (please comment)

8 votes

No Majority vote on minority rights, BUT...

ge0rge

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Friday November 07, 2008 · 5:49 PM PST

2008/11/07 · 17:49

...do you ever get the urge to just quote Dirty Harry (also from San Francisco)
and say GO AHEAD -- MAKE MY DAY! ? Well, DO ya, punk?

California is not North Carolina. California is better than this.
California is a state where polls actually favored our right
to marry as recently as August. It's a state where even the
Republican governor didn't want the people to do what they did
by passing prop.8.

Right now, the states of California and North Carolina are
in a completely upside-down situation where the California
constitution prohibits gay people from marrying each other,
while the North Carolina constitution does not.
North Carolina has a DOMA statute but that is only 1 state
Supreme Court seat (which Obama unfortunately did NOT have
coattails for last Tuesday) from getting struck down as unconstitutional.
The people of North Carolina have never had a chance to vote
on this because both houses of the North Carolina legislature
are controlled by Democrats who know they would lose a lot of
elections if this ever made it onto the ballot (collateral
damage from infrequent voters passionate about the issue).

Poll

46 votes Show Results

Can minority rights ever be ADVANCED by getting voted on?

46 votes Vote Now!

Can minority rights ever be ADVANCED by getting voted on?

Maybe sometime, but now is not one of those times

0 votes

Maybe now, in California, but not usually

2 votes

No; Basic rights are NOT subject to "popular" whim.

37 votes

Yes; judicial fiat short-circuits opportunity to actually convince people

7 votes

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How Many Trillion$ for the War on ...

Saluting the Illinois Council of Students

Why Obama and Duncan have 0 credibility on Education

Why Anthony Kennedy is a racist hypocrite

Has the death of the Voting Rights Act been diaried yet?

The Eisenhower Foundation knew it was bad 10 years ago

"These blogs are getting out of hand"

What the FPers should have known

Warren's NOT reaching BACK across the aisle

California NAACP position on prop.8

WHAT? My capital CITY "can't make the reset"?

No Majority vote on minority rights, BUT...